Guidewire glossary
51 Guidewire and insurance terms, explained in plain English.
A
- Account PolicyCenter / BillingCenter
- The record for an insured person or organization. An account can hold several policies, and in BillingCenter it is the level at which billing and payments are managed.
- Activity InsuranceSuite
- A task assigned to a user or group, such as reviewing a document or calling a claimant, often created automatically by rules or workflows.
- Agency bill BillingCenter
- A billing method where the producer (agent or broker) collects premium from the insured and pays the insurer, usually net of commission.
- Assignment InsuranceSuite
- The process of deciding which user or group owns a piece of work, such as a claim, exposure or activity, usually driven by assignment rules.
- Audit PolicyCenter
- A job that calculates final premium from actual exposure, such as payroll in workers' compensation, after or during the policy term.
B
- Batch process InsuranceSuite
- A background job that runs on a schedule or on demand to process records in bulk, such as sending renewals or aging invoices.
- BillingCenter InsuranceSuite
- Guidewire's billing application. It manages accounts, invoices, payment plans, payments, delinquency and producer commissions.
- Bind PolicyCenter
- The step in a job where the insurer accepts the transaction. After binding, the policy or change is committed and can be issued.
C
- Cancellation PolicyCenter
- A job that ends a policy before its expiration date, for example for non-payment or at the insured's request.
- Claim ClaimCenter
- The record of a loss reported under a policy. A claim can contain one or more exposures, incidents and financial transactions.
- ClaimCenter InsuranceSuite
- Guidewire's claims application. It manages the claim lifecycle from first notice of loss to settlement and closure.
- Coverage PolicyCenter
- Protection provided by a policy against a specific risk, defined in the product model with terms such as limits and deductibles.
D
- Delinquency BillingCenter
- The state of an account or policy with overdue payment. Delinquency plans define the steps taken, such as notices and cancellation.
- Direct bill BillingCenter
- A billing method where the insurer bills and collects premium directly from the insured.
E
- Effective date PolicyCenter
- The date a policy or a change takes effect. PolicyCenter tracks data over time, so changes apply from their effective date onward.
- Enhancement Gosu
- A Gosu construct that adds methods and properties to an existing type without subclassing it. Learn more →
- Entity InsuranceSuite
- A business object in the data model, such as Policy, Claim or Contact, that is stored in the database.
- Entity extension InsuranceSuite
- A configuration file (.etx) that adds fields or behaviour to an existing entity without changing the base product definition.
- Exposure ClaimCenter
- A part of a claim that represents one potential payment to one claimant for one coverage, such as vehicle damage or bodily injury.
F
- First notice of loss (FNOL) ClaimCenter
- The first report of a loss to the insurer. In ClaimCenter it is captured with the new claim wizard.
G
- Gosu InsuranceSuite
- Guidewire's statically typed, object-oriented programming language. It runs on the Java Virtual Machine and is used to customize InsuranceSuite. Learn more →
- Guidewire Cloud Platform
- Guidewire's hosted offering, where Guidewire runs InsuranceSuite environments and customers deploy configuration through managed pipelines. Learn more →
- Guidewire Studio Tools
- The development environment used to configure InsuranceSuite applications and write Gosu code.
- GUnit Testing
- Guidewire's unit testing framework for Gosu code, used to test rules, enhancements and other logic.
I
- Incident ClaimCenter
- A record of something that happened in a loss, such as damage to a vehicle or an injury, linked to exposures on the claim.
- InsuranceSuite Platform
- Guidewire's core suite for property and casualty insurers, made up of PolicyCenter, ClaimCenter and BillingCenter.
- Invoice BillingCenter
- A bill sent to a payer listing the amounts due, created according to the account's payment plan and billing settings.
J
- Job PolicyCenter
- The process that carries out a policy transaction, such as a submission, policy change, renewal or cancellation. Learn more →
L
- Line of business PolicyCenter
- A category of insurance, such as personal auto or homeowners, defined in the product model with its own coverages and rules.
M
- Messaging Integration
- InsuranceSuite's mechanism for sending events to external systems reliably and in order, for example notifying billing when a policy is issued.
O
- Out-of-sequence change PolicyCenter
- A policy change effective before a change that was already bound. Later transactions must be reconciled with it. Learn more →
P
- Payment plan BillingCenter
- Defines how premium is split into installments, such as monthly or quarterly, and when invoices are produced.
- PCF (Page Configuration Format) InsuranceSuite
- XML files that define the user interface (locations, screens, panels and widgets) of InsuranceSuite applications.
- Plugin Integration
- A configurable point where InsuranceSuite calls custom code, often to integrate with an external system.
- Policy PolicyCenter
- The long-lived record of an insurance policy. Each term and change is represented by a policy period.
- Policy change PolicyCenter
- A job that changes a policy during its term, such as adding a driver or a vehicle.
- Policy period PolicyCenter
- One version of a policy for a span of time. Jobs create and modify policy periods. Learn more →
- PolicyCenter InsuranceSuite
- Guidewire's policy administration application. It manages quoting, issuing, changing, renewing and cancelling policies. Learn more →
- Preemption PolicyCenter
- The situation where another job on the same policy is bound first, so an open job must reconcile its changes before binding.
- Product model PolicyCenter
- The configuration that defines insurance products: lines of business, coverages, conditions, exclusions and their terms.
Q
- Quote PolicyCenter
- The step in a job where premium is calculated by rating and underwriting rules are evaluated.
R
- Rating PolicyCenter
- The calculation of premium for a policy period based on its coverages, risks and rating rules.
- Recovery ClaimCenter
- Money received back on a claim, such as salvage or subrogation, recorded as a financial transaction.
- Reinstatement PolicyCenter
- A job that brings a cancelled policy back into force.
- Renewal PolicyCenter
- A job that continues a policy for a new term, usually with re-rating.
- Reserve ClaimCenter
- An amount set aside for expected future payments on a claim exposure.
- Rule set InsuranceSuite
- A group of Gosu business rules that run at a defined point, such as validation before binding or assignment of a new claim.
S
- Submission PolicyCenter
- A job that quotes and issues a new policy.
T
- Typelist InsuranceSuite
- A defined list of allowed values, such as claim states or policy statuses, used by entity fields.
U
- Underwriting issue PolicyCenter
- A condition raised during a job that may block binding until an authorized user approves it.
W
- Workflow InsuranceSuite
- A configurable, multi-step business process that can wait, branch and run actions over time.